When German immigrant Matthew Edel of Haverhill died in 1940, his blacksmith shop and tools were frozen in time. In 1986, a team of specialists documented 4,486 artifacts in the shop's collection and left them intact exactly as he did 76 years ago.

Today, some of those artifacts are showing signs of deterioration and need help. The Schrader family (descendants of Matthew Edel) has generously offered to match up to $10,000 of the funding we can raise to upgrade conservation of the artifacts to modern-day standards.

Please join us and the Edel family in keeping the shop's history alive. All tax-deductible gifts made to the Iowa Historical Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the State Historical Society of Iowa, by Dec. 20 will be included in the matching campaign.